Whenever someone discovers Lightroom and starts to use it, invariably a question surfaces about color and color space. The reason this question surfaces is because color is a little bit vague and ambiguous inside of Lightroom. Let me explain. Well, if you're used to working in Photoshop, you know that color profiles and color spaces really matter, and you know about the sRGB color space, which is small, the RGB 1998 space, which is a bit bigger, and then ProPhoto, which is really huge--this huge, wide gamut space.

In Photoshop Lightroom 3 Advanced Techniques, photographer Chris Orwig shows how to master the subtleties of Lightroom 3 and maximize its efficiency. The course begins with an in-depth exploration of Lightroom catalogs to keep track of photos, collections, keywords, stacks, and more. Along the way, Chris shows how to integrate Bridge and Photoshop in the Lightroom workflow and shares advanced techniques, including image editing with the adjustment brush, automating actions, using plug-ins and extensions, exporting to email or an FTP server, and more. Exercise files are included with the course.

Topics include:

Maximizing file compatibility

Speeding up the workflow with automation

Working with catalogs, collections, and folders

Diagramming multiple catalogs and computers

Performing and restoring backups

Setting up tethered capture

Advanced retouching techniques, such as eye enhancement and blemish reduction

Understanding color space and preventing color profile mismatch

Whenever someone discovers Lightroom and starts to use it, invariably a questionsurfaces about color and color space.The reason this question surfaces is because color is a little bit vague andambiguous inside of Lightroom. Let me explain.Well, if you're used to working in Photoshop, you know that color profiles andcolor spaces really matter, and you know about the sRGB color space, which issmall, the RGB 1998 space, which is a bit bigger, and then ProPhoto, which isreally huge--this huge, wide gamut space.

What happens in Lightroom say, for example, with an image like this, when wemake changes to it--maybe warming it up, adding some contrast or some clarity?How is that color change taking place and inside of what color space?Well, you can think of Lightroom as a program which is internally color managed.In other words, the color space doesn't matter until you export, or until youpass a file off, say to a program like Photoshop. And you and I already knowabout this a little bit, right?If you navigate to your Lightroom pulldown menu and go to Preferences and thenExternal Editing, you know that you can pass off a file to Photoshop as a TIFFfile in this ProPhoto RGB color space. And this is typically what you want todo, so that you can take advantage of the Lightroom RGB color space, which isinternally managed.

So that internal management is then sent to this ProPhoto Space, which passesoff to Photoshop, so Photoshop can handle and make sense of that file.Well, occasionally though, we'll run into issues where you may open up an imagefrom Lightroom into Photoshop, and it doesn't look right. Now, why is that?Well, the first thing to check is your External Editing Preferences.So you want to double-check those.The next thing that you need to do is to actually go to Photoshop, and inPhotoshop, navigate to your Edit pulldown menu and then choose Color Settings.

Now, the default Photoshop color settings will not cut it.For example, the default color space of sRGB will be much too small.You want to change this to ProPhoto RGB.Next, what we need to do is to turn on our warnings.Let us know what's going to happen if we have a profile mismatch, so that we candecide how to manage that color between Lightroom and Photoshop.Now, if you have this ProPhoto space turned on, you won't have an issue, yet youalso just want to know in case there is some kind of a mismatch, you can controlthat. A little warning dialog will open.

Well, once you've dialed in those settings, you go ahead and click OK, when yougo back to Lightroom and then choose Photo > Edit In > Edit in PhotoshopCS5--here I'm going to edit a copy with Lightroom adjustments--what you should see here between these two images is identical color andcontrast, et cetera, et cetera. Because we've matched those color spaces up,there isn't a mismatch.It's passing off ProPhoto to ProPhoto, so the color looks great.Now, the last thing that you need to look into is your monitor profile.

Because Lightroom is internally color managed, as long as you have a goodmonitor color profile, you'll be in good shape as you work in Lightroom.Now, that being said, if you haven't calibrated your monitor, if you haven'tcreated a good monitor profile, then your work in Lightroom may be a little bit off.So the next thing we're going to take a look at is how we can create monitorprofiles in order to really tighten up our overall color-managed workflow, andwe'll explore how we can do that in the next movie.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.